This image provided by Maxar Technologies shows overview of Rafah border crossing, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on November 1, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Israel-Hamas war | Gaza crossing opens for foreigners and wounded

After more than three weeks of siege, the first Palestinians — dozens of dual passport holders and seriously injured — were allowed to leave Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes pounded a refugee camp for the second day on Wednesday.

Even as bombings have driven tens of thousands from their homes and food, water and fuel run low, no one has been allowed to leave the embattled enclave, except for four hostages released by Hamas. Another captive was rescued by Israeli forces earlier this week. But a limited agreement appeared to have been reached on Wednesday.

GST collections rise to ₹1.72 lakh crore in October

Growth in India’s gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues bounced back in October with tax collections rising at a 10-month high pace of 13.4% to hit the second highest monthly tally of ₹1.72 lakh crore.

October’s GST receipts were 5.7% over the kitty in September, when growth in the indirect tax had slowed to a 27-month low of 10.2%. The 13.4% revenue growth marks the sharpest year-on-year uptick since December 2022 and breaks a three-month streak of deceleration.

Selective confidentiality in electoral bonds scheme may not prevent ruling party from knowing about Opposition donors: SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the electoral bonds scheme only offered a “selective confidentiality”, which does not prevent the ruling party from unearthing the identities of donors to Opposition parties and then hounding them through its investigative agencies.

Ban on construction if ‘severe’ air quality lasts in Delhi

Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said construction activities will be halted within a 1-km radius of the city’s pollution hotspots if the air quality in these areas remains “severe” for one week.

Wednesday marked the fifth consecutive day when Delhi’s overall air quality remained in the “very poor” category, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The air quality in some parts of the Capital was “severe”, and the city is likely to have “very poor” air for the rest of the week, it showed.

Risk of type 2 diabetes linked to air pollution in Chennai, Delhi 

Two studies published in international journals have reported a worrying link between air pollution levels and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Chennai and Delhi. The study is notable not because the findings are new – they aren’t unprecedented – but because they have found that the link, which has been indicated in Western countries and more recently in China as well, also holds in urban India.

Maharashtra government in favour of Maratha quota, says CM Shinde; pro-quota campaigner urged to call off indefinite fast

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on November 1 confirmed the State government’s support for Maratha reservation and urged the pro-quota campaigner Manoj Jarange Patil to terminate his indefinite fast.

Emphasising the necessity for Mr Patil cooperation in securing reservation for the community, Mr. Shinde also underscored the call for restraint among the Maratha populace

Kerala blasts: Accused unrepentant during interrogation, says he has proved a point

Martin V.D., the sole accused in the multiple explosions at a Jehovah’s Witnesses religious gathering at Kalamassery in Kochi, Kerala, on October 29, 2023 showed no remorse whatsoever at the time of questioning as he stood firm on his act that resulted in the death of two women and a 12-year-old child.

Saima Wazed, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, nominated Regional Director of WHO

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, was on Wednesday nominated as the next Regional Director for the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region.

She defeated Shambu Acharya, a public health veteran from Nepal, in a vote held here during the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region. 

State DGP appointees must have at least six months to retire; those on deputation need Central consent: amended UPSC guidelines

Only police officers with at least six months of service left before retirement will be considered for appointment as the Director General of Police of a State, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said in amended guidelines issued last month.

In another change, the Empanelment Committee constituted by the UPSC will not assess Indian Police Service (IPS) officers on central deputation for a State DGP’s post if the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informs the State government that “it will not be possible to relieve the officers.”

Biden Nominates Indo-Pacific Lead Campbell as Blinken’s Deputy

U.S. President Joe Biden, on Wednesday, announced that he had nominated his Indo-Pacific policy chief Kurt Campbell for the Deputy Secretary of State position. The announcement, which was expected, will give Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team a renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific region in the face of competing strategic imperatives, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in West Asia.

Magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes Timor, Indonesia

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck the Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province on Thursday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

The Indonesian geological agency (BMKG) pegged the magnitude at 6.3 with no tsunami potential. The epicentre of the quake was onshore and at a depth of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles), located 15 kilometres from the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province, Kupang.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit to Israel on Friday, US State Department said on Tuesday. This will be Blinken’s second visit to Israel since war began.

“Secretary Blinken will travel to Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the Israeli government, and then will make other stops in the region,” US State Department spokesman said in his statement.

The visit comes as Israel intensifies its ground offensive in Gaza amid deepening humanitarian crisis.

Earlier On Tuesday, Isareli military carried out air strikes on densely populated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing dozens of people.

Israel also claimed that the top commander of Hamas, who was involved in October 7 attack, was also killed in air strike on Gaza.

Hamas, however, dismissed Israel’s claim and said that no one of its leaders was present in the camp during the attack.

According to Gaza health ministry, more than 8,000 people have been killed, mostly children and women, in Israeli bombardments since war began on October 7.

Here are the live updates on the Israel-Hamas war:

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Nearly three dozen trucks entered Gaza on Sunday in the largest aid convoy since the war between Israel and Hamas began, but humanitarian workers said the assistance still fell desperately short of needs after thousands of people broke into warehouses to take flour and basic hygiene products.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians passed 8,000, mostly women and minors, as Israeli tanks and infantry pursued what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in the war ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion. The toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.

Communications were restored to most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people Sunday after an Israeli bombardment described by residents as the most intense of the war knocked out phone and internet services late Friday.

Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid to enter. On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt, a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing, Wael Abo Omar, told The Associated Press.

After visiting the Rafah crossing, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court called the suffering of civilians “profound” and said he had not been able to enter Gaza. “These are the most tragic of days,” said Karim Khan, whose court has been investigating the actions of Israeli and Palestinian authorities since 2014.

Khan called on Israel to respect international law but stopped short of accusing it of war crimes. He called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack a serious violation of international humanitarian law. “The burden rests with those who aim the gun, missile or rocket in question,” he said.

The Israeli military said Sunday it had struck more than 450 militant targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centers and anti-tank missile launching positions. Huge plumes of smoke rose over Gaza City. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said dozens of militants were killed.

Hagari also blamed Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yehiya Sinwar, for bringing destruction upon his people with the Oct. 7 attack. “We will chase him until we get him,” he said. Hamas has said it is sworn to Israel’s demise.

The Hamas military wing said its militants clashed with Israeli troops who entered the northwest Gaza Strip with small arms and anti-tank missiles. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.

The aid warehouse break-ins were “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” said Thomas White, Gaza director for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. “People are scared, frustrated and desperate.”

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the crowds broke into four facilities on Saturday. She said the warehouses did not contain any fuel, which has been in critically short supply since Israel cut off all shipments. Israel says Hamas would use it for military purposes and that the militant group is hoarding large stocks of fuel for itself in the territory. That claim could not be independently verified.

One warehouse held 80 tons of food, the U.N. World Food Program said. It emphasized that at least 40 of its trucks need to cross into Gaza daily just to meet growing food needs.

President Joe Biden in a call with Netanyahu on Sunday “underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza,” the U.S. said.

Israeli authorities said they would soon allow more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

But the head of civil affairs of COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, provided no details on how much aid would be available. Elad Goren also said Israel has opened two water lines in southern Gaza within the past week. The AP could not independently verify that either line was functioning.

Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in Gaza came under growing threat. Residents living near Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, said Israeli airstrikes overnight hit near the complex where tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital but has not provided much evidence. Hamas denies the allegations.

“Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult,” Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the hospital, said by phone. “It seems they want to cut off the area.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said nearby Israeli airstrikes damaged parts of another Gaza City hospital after it received two calls from Israeli authorities on Sunday ordering it to evacuate. Some windows were blown out, and rooms were covered in debris. The rescue service said airstrikes have hit as close as 50 meters (yards) from the Al-Quds Hospital where 14,000 people are sheltering.

Israel ordered the hospital to evacuate more than a week ago, but it and other medical facilities have refused, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators.

“Under no circumstances, hospitals should be bombed,” the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Robert Mardini, told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Israel says most Gaza residents have heeded its orders to flee to the southern part of the besieged territory, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones. More than 1.4 million people across Gaza have fled their homes.

An Israeli airstrike hit a two-story house in Khan Younis on Sunday, killing at least 13 people, including 10 from one family. The bodies were brought to the nearby Nasser Hospital, according to an AP journalist at the scene.

The military escalation has increased domestic pressure on Israel’s government to secure the release of some 230 hostages seized by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7 attack.

Hamas says it is ready to release all hostages if Israel releases all of the thousands of Palestinians held in its prisons. Desperate family members of the Israeli captives met with Netanyahu on Saturday and expressed support for an exchange. Israel has dismissed the Hamas offer.

“If Hamas does not feel military pressure, nothing will move forward,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told families of the hostages Sunday.

The Israeli military has stopped short of calling its gradually expanding ground operations inside Gaza an all-out invasion. Casualties on both sides are expected to rise sharply as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants battle in dense residential areas.

Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate among civilians, putting them in danger.

The violence has inflicted serious damage on Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The territory’s sole power plant shut down shortly after the war began. Hospitals are struggling to keep emergency generators running to operate incubators and other life-saving equipment, and UNRWA is trying to keep water pumps and bakeries running. As water ran short, some Gazans bathed in the sea.

About 20,000 people were sheltering at Nasser Hospital, emergency director Dr. Mohammed Qandeel said. “I brought my kids to sleep here,” said one displaced resident who gave her name only as Umm Ahmad. “I used to be afraid of my kids playing in the sand. Now their hands are dirty with the blood on the floor.”

The fighting has raised concerns that the violence could spread across the region. Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have engaged in daily skirmishes along Israel’s northern border. Hagari said Israel on Sunday struck three militant cells that fired from Lebanon into Israel and killed militants who were trying to enter. Hamas said its forces in Lebanon fired 16 missiles at the Israeli city of Nahariya. Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said it also fired missiles at several sites.

The Israeli military said Sunday night that rockets from Syria fell in open Israeli territory. It did not report any injuries.

More than 120,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes because of violence along the border with Gaza and the northern border with Lebanon.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, including more than 3,500 children

October 29, 2023 07:46 am | Updated 08:09 am IST

Israel’s army relentlessly hammered the territory on October 28 after fierce overnight bombardment that rescuers said destroyed hundreds of buildings three weeks into a war sparked by the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that there was a potential for thousands more civilians to die if Israel presses a major ground offensive in Gaza. The U.N. rights chief also condemned the Internet and telecommunications blackout that has hit the Palestinian enclave since Friday.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, including more than 3,500 children.

Also Read | Israel-Hamas war Day 22 updates

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that fighting inside the Gaza Strip would be “long and difficult”, as Israeli ground forces operate in the Palestinian territory for more than 24 hours. The Israeli military spokesman said the country is expanding its ground operation in Gaza with infantry and armoured vehicles backed by “massive” strikes from the air and sea.

Israel unleashed its bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing more than 220 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Friday overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians. India was among the 45 countries who abstained from voting.

(With inputs from agencies)

Follow the live updates here:

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, including more than 3,500 children

October 29, 2023 07:46 am | Updated 10:37 am IST

Israel’s army relentlessly hammered the territory on October 28 after fierce overnight bombardment that rescuers said destroyed hundreds of buildings three weeks into a war sparked by the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned that there was a potential for thousands more civilians to die if Israel presses a major ground offensive in Gaza. The U.N. rights chief also condemned the Internet and telecommunications blackout that has hit the Palestinian enclave since Friday.

The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, including more than 3,500 children.

Also Read | Israel-Hamas war Day 22 updates

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that fighting inside the Gaza Strip would be “long and difficult”, as Israeli ground forces operate in the Palestinian territory for more than 24 hours. The Israeli military spokesman said the country is expanding its ground operation in Gaza with infantry and armoured vehicles backed by “massive” strikes from the air and sea.

Israel unleashed its bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing more than 220 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Meanwhile, the United Nations on Friday overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians. India was among the 45 countries who abstained from voting.

(With inputs from agencies)

Follow the live updates here:

Voting results displayed as the Unite Nations General Assembly voted on a nonbinding resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza and a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers on October 27, 2023 at U.N. headquarters.
| Photo Credit: AP

UNGA vote on Gaza | India defends abstention, says resolution should have referred to October 7 terror attacks on Israel

The government defended its decision to abstain in a U.N. General Assembly vote on resolution that called for a humanitarian truce and ceasefire in Gaza, saying it did not include “explicit condemnation” of the October 7 terror attacks in Israel. A note circulated by government sources responding to criticism from Opposition members about the vote said that since India’s concerns over omissions had not been covered by the final text of the resolution, it had decided to abstain. 

Former Hamas chief Khaled Mashal’s online speech sets off row in Kerala

Palestinian leader and former Hamas chief Khaled Mashal addressed online a rally taken out by the Solidarity Youth Movement expressing support for the Palestinian people in Malappuram on October 27. The live video address by the former Hamas chief triggered a controversy with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran calling for legal action against the organisers.

CJI to head five-judge Bench that will hear electoral bonds case

The Supreme Court on Saturday named the five judges on the Constitution Bench scheduled to hear petitions challenging the legality of the electoral bonds scheme, which facilitates anonymous donations to political parties, from October 31.

Lok Sabha ethics panel asks Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra to appear on November 2, rules out any further extension

Trinamool Congress member in the Lok Sabha, Mahua Moitra, who is facing an inquiry into allegations of cash-for-query, has been asked to appear before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on November 2, but the panel ruled out any further extension. Earlier, the committee had asked her to appear before it on October 31, but she expressed her inability to do so, citing prior engagements. Ms. Moitra, in a letter, had said that she was looking forward to depose and the committee could choose any date after November 5.

Shelling by Pakistan triggers scare in Jammu’s Arnia

Uneasy calm and fear prevailed in villages near the zero line in the Arnia sector of Jammu after an eight-hour skirmish between Indian and Pakistani troops which left the 2021 ceasefire agreement hanging by a thread.

A Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman said constable Basava Raj sustained minor injuries in the hands. “His condition is stable. There was no other loss. The damage to material is being ascertained,” the BSF said.

Former U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence drops out of Republican presidential campaign

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence ended his cash-strapped presidential campaign on October 28, after struggling for months to convince Republican voters he was the best alternative to the man he once served with unswerving loyalty — Donald Trump.

“To the American people I say: This is not my time,” Mr. Pence told attendees at the Republican Jewish Coalition donor conference in Las Vegas.

Bangladesh is building memorial to honour Indian heroes of 1971 war

A memorial to honour the Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 at Ashuganj in Bangladesh is in the advanced stages of completion. It will have the names of around 1,600 Indian soldiers inscribed on it. It is expected to be ready by December and the effort is to have it inaugurated by Prime Minister of the two Prime Ministers in March or April, said A.K.M. Mozammel Haque, Bangladeshi Minister for Liberation War Affairs.

Delhi’s air quality deteriorates; no respite likely till month end

Delhi’s air quality slipped into the “very poor” category on Saturday and is unlikely to improve over the next three days, according to official data. Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was 304 (very poor) at 4 p.m. on Saturday, up from 261 (poor) a day earlier, as per the daily bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Cricket World Cup 2023 IND vs ENG | On-a-roll India raring to extend its dream run against sinking England

The labyrinth of roads criss-crossing Lucknow’s heart are dotted with heritage buildings, harking back to a bygone era. The other end of the spectrum has contemporary streets and suburbs with their skyscrapers. Modern pizzas and ancient tunday kebabs jostle together in a multi-layered culinary landscape.

With Israel intensifying its bombardment of Gaza, in which more than 7,700 people were killed in 22 days, fears of a wider regional war are also rising. Israel started bombing Gaza, a tiny, defenceless enclave of 2.3 million people, who have been sandwiched between Israel proper and the Mediterranean Sea, after Hamas, an Islamist militant group that controls the land strip, carried out a cross-border raid on October 7, killing at least 1,400 Israelis. After Israel started the retaliatory strikes, Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia militant group that had fought Israel in the past, fired rockets into the Shebaa Farms, a Lebanese territory on the border that Israel occupies, showing “solidarity” with the Palestinians. Last week, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah met Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders and offered support for the “Palestinian resistance”. Some Hezbollah fighters also tried to infiltrate into northern Israel after the Gaza war began. Israel responded with heavy shelling of southern Lebanon. As tensions rise, the world is watching whether Hezbollah would open another front or Israel carry out pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon, widening the conflict.

Also Read | UNGA vote on Gaza | India defends abstention, says resolution should have referred to October 7 terror attacks on Israel

Ironically, the roots of Hezbollah go back to Israel’s 1982 war on Lebanon, which the then Likud Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, said would bring “forty years of peace for Israel”. Lebanon was in the grip of a devastating civil war that began in 1975. According to Lebanon’s post-French Constitution, power was divided among the country’s different communities — the Presidency is reserved for Christians, the Premiership for Sunnis and the Speakership for the Shias. Roughly 40% of Lebanon’s population are Arab Shias. The influx of the Palestinian refugees into Lebanon and the relocation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) to Lebanon from Jordan in 1971 would create fissures in the country’s delicate confessional system, which would lead to the civil war. While the Sunnis and Maronite Christians were the powerful sects, Shias were the invisible majority, sidelined by the major players and post-colonial institutions.

Israel attacked Lebanon in 1978 and 1982, first to push the PLO out of the border region and then out of the country. In 1982, the PLO would agree to leave Lebanon, but one community that bore the brunt of Israel’s disproportionate bombing was the already marginalised Shias.

Three years earlier, a geopolitical earthquake had shaken West Asia — in Iran, which was an American ally, Shia Mullahs captured power after bringing down a thousands of years old monarchy. Iran, which was already fighting a conventional war with Iraq (1980-88), sensed an opportunity in Lebanon’s chaos. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Iranian regime helped mobilise thousands of Shias in Lebanon in 1982 to form a loose network of what was then unofficially called the ‘Islamic Resistance’.

Early attacks

One of the first targets of the Islamic Resistance was the Multinational Forces (MNF) deployed in Lebanon. In April 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed, killing 63 people. In October, 305 people, mostly American and French soldiers, were killed in suicide attacks on their military barracks. Following these attacks, the MNF would leave the country, providing the first victory to the newly organised Shia militants. Israeli troops retreated to a “security zone” in southern Lebanon. In 1985, the Islamic Resistance would come up with a manifesto, calling for the destruction of the state of Israel, vowing to oust occupied forces from Lebanon and declaring allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader. According to some reports, it was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader, who picked the name ‘Hezbollah’ (literally ‘the Party of God’) for the new movement.

Over the years, Hezbollah has built sprawling social, political and military networks with deep roots in Lebanon’s Shia community. In southern Lebanon, a Shia stronghold, it carried out a disciplined, effective, popular guerilla war against the occupying Israeli forces, turning the ‘security zone’ into what Adam Shatz calls an ‘insecurity zone’. The party organisation has been built in a Leninist order, centralising authority in the hands of the Secretary General. The chief would oversee a seven-member Shura council, like the Polit Bureau of a communist party, and then there are sub councils. Their social network caters to the Shia working class, offering support, including healthcare and education assistance, in a country where the state is systemically weak, while the political and parliamentary councils have played the role of a kingmaker in Lebanon’s fractured polity since 1992, when Hezbollah participated in the elections for the first time. Yet, the most important arm is the Jihad Council, which controls its military activities.

Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s co-founder Abbas al-Musawi in 1992 as part of a policy of targeted killings to weaken rival outfits. But the man who succeeded Musawi, Hassan Nasralla, turned Hezbollah into a socio- politico-militant giant, “a state within the state”, though it has been designated as a terrorist outfit by Israel and several of its allies. In 2000, after 18 years of occupation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak decided to unilaterally withdraw from southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah celebrated as “the first Arab victory in the history of Arab-Israeli conflict”. But Israel’s withdrawal would not quieten the Lebanese border. Hezbollah said it would continue to fight the Israelis as long as its occupation of Shebaa Farms and Palestinian territories continues. In its 2019 updated manifesto, Hezbollah reiterated its commitment for the destruction of Israel.

War with Israel

In 2006, after Hezbollah carried out a raid and abducted two Israeli soldiers, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared war against the militant group. The war lasted for over 30 days and even on the last day of fighting, Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets into Israel. Israeli air strikes and ground attacks destroyed much of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, but the group survived, and emerged politically stronger in Lebanon. In the subsequent years, Hezbollah rebuilt its military power, mainly with help from Iran. From the 1980s, Syria’s Baathist regime has been a conduit between Iran and Hezbollah. When Bashar al-Assad’s regime was losing control in the midst of the Syrian civil war, Nasrallah despatched thousands of soldiers to fight alongside the Syrian Army. Under Russian air cover and with support from Iran, the Syrian Army, Hezbollah and other Shia militias turned around the civil war. Hezbollah emerged stronger out of the Syrian conflict, with newly gained battlefield experience. It has also strengthened the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis. In recent years. Israel has carried out repeated air strikes inside Syria, mainly targeting Iranian supplies for Hezbollah.

Israel sees Hezbollah as a potent rival, unlike other non-state actors, including Hamas. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, the militia has up to 20,000 active fighters and as many reservists, with an arsenal of small arms, tanks, drones, and long-range rockets. Last November, while briefing about Israel’s past conflicts with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, an Israeli Brigadier told this writer they never underestimated Hezbollah, which “has now amassed more than 1,00,000 rockets”. “Hezbollah is a tough enemy. They have very good military equipment. They are very well-trained,” he said, requesting anonymity. That Israel has mobilised 3,50,000 troops, including all reservists, suggests that it is taking the risk of a wider war seriously. Hezbollah, on the other side, keeps everyone guessing, while reiterating its rhetorical support for Hamas. “We are fully ready to fight Israel when time comes,” says the ‘Party of God’.

The near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Palestinian territory risks providing cover for mass atrocities, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.

Internet access and the phone network were completely cut across the Gaza Strip on Friday, nearly three weeks after Israel began bombarding the enclave following an armed attack by Hamas militants that Israeli officials say killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

“Widespread phone and internet outages occurred in Gaza on October 27, 2023, amid a concerted Israeli bombardment, almost entirely cutting off the 2.2 million residents from the outside world,” HRW said in a statement.

“This information blackout risks providing cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations,” Deborah Brown, the group’s senior technology and human rights researcher, said in the statement.

A number of international agencies and NGOs said they had lost touch with their staff in Gaza on Friday, including the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA.

– AFP

The U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration’s determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel’s war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 12 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria since October 17.

– AP